---
layout: docs
page_title: Federation
description: |-
  Nomad federation enables multiple Nomad clusters in different regions to work together seamlessly. Learn about cross-region request forwarding, replication, and Nomad Enterprise's multi-region job deployments.
---

# Federation

This page provides conceptual information about the Nomad federation feature.
Learn about cross-region request forwarding, replication, and Nomad Enterprise's
multi-region job deployments.

Nomad federation is a multi-cluster orchestration and management feature that
enables multiple Nomad clusters running in different regions to work together
seamlessly. By federating clusters, you benefit from improved scalability, fault
tolerance, and centralized management of workloads across various data centers
or geographical locations.

## Cross-Region request forwarding

API calls can include a `region` query parameter that defines the Nomad region
the query is specified for. If this is not the local region, Nomad transparently
forwards the request to a server in the requested region. When you omit the
query parameter, Nomad uses the region of the server that is processing the
request.

## Replication

Nomad writes the following objects in the authoritative region and replicates
them to all federated regions:

- ACL [policies][acl_policy], [roles][acl_role], [auth methods][acl_auth_method],
  [binding rules][acl_binding_rule], and [global tokens][acl_token]
- [Namespaces][namespace]
- [Node pools][node_pool]
- [Quota specifications][quota]
- [Sentinel policies][sentinel_policies]

When creating, updating, or deleting these objects, Nomad always sends the
request to the authoritative region using RPC forwarding.

Nomad starts replication routines on each federated cluster's leader server in a
hub and spoke design. The routines then use blocking queries to receive updates
from the authoritative region to mirror in their own state store. These routines
also implement rate limiting, so that busy clusters do not degrade due to overly
aggressive replication processes.

<Note> Nomad writes ACL local tokens in the region where you make the request
and  does not replicate those local tokens. </Note>

## Multi-Region job deployments <EnterpriseAlert inline />

Nomad job deployments can use the [`multiregion`][] block when running in
federated mode. Multiregion configuration instructs Nomad to register and run
the job on all the specified regions, removing the need for multiple job
specification copies and registration on each region. Multiregion jobs do not
provide regional failover in the event of failure.

[acl_policy]: /nomad/docs/secure/acl/#policies
[acl_role]: /nomad/docs/secure/acl/#roles
[acl_auth_method]: /nomad/docs/secure/acl/#authentication-methods
[acl_binding_rule]: /nomad/docs/secure/acl/#binding-rules
[acl_token]: /nomad/docs/secure/acl/#tokens
[node_pool]: /nomad/docs/architecture/cluster/node-pools
[namespace]: /nomad/docs/other-specifications/namespace
[quota]: /nomad/docs/other-specifications/quota
[sentinel_policies]: /nomad/docs/reference/sentinel-policy
[`multiregion`]: /nomad/docs/job-specification/multiregion
